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Composing Tourneys

Composing tourneys come in two flavours: formal and informal. Formal tourneys
invite composers to send original compositions to a director, who renders
them anonymous and sends them on to the judge. The judge makes his award and
sends it to the director, who adds the composers’ names before the award is
published. Informal tourneys are not anonymous. Composers send their original
work to the editors of chess composition magazines, who publish those they
think worthy. The compositions are published in the magazines’ sections for
originals, where they normally form material used in yearly solving
competitions for the readerships. There are many types of chess composition
and all compositions in each type in a particular period (normally a year,
but not always) are then judged by an expert in that field, with the award
being published in due course in the magazine.

Our first study managed to make the award in the endgame study section
of the informal tourney for the years 2005 to 2006 of the German
magazine Die Schwalbe, the magazine of the
Deutsche Vereinigung für Problemschach.

Sergey Didukh

2nd HM., Die Schwalbe, 2005-2006

White to play and win

Two pieces are attacked, so White has to act quickly. 1.Ne4+!
Qxe4 Other moves lead to a quick defeat for Black - 1...Kb6 2.Rb3+
Kc6 (2...Ka5 3.Rb5+ Ka4 (3...Kxa6 4.Kc7 Qxe4 5.Rb6+ Ka5 6.Ra6#) 4.Rb2
Ka5 5.Kc7 Qd1 6.Nxd6 Qa1 7.Rb5+ Ka4 8.Bb3+ Ka3 9.Nc4#) 3.Bb5+ Kd5
(3...Kb6 4.Bxd7+ Kxa6 (4...Ka5 5.Kc7 Qxc3+ 6.Nxc3 d5 7.Nxd5 Kxa6
8.Ra3#) 5.Kc7 Qh5 6.Bc8+ Ka5 7.Ra3+ Kb5 8.Ba6#) 4.c4+ Kxe4 5.Rxf3 1-0;
1...Kc6 2.Bd5+ Kxd5 3.c4+ Kxe4 4.Rxf3 Kxf3 5.Kxd7 1-0; 1...Kxc4 2.Nd2+
1-0 2.Ra5+ Kb6 2...Kxc4 3.Ra4+ Kd3 4.Rxe4 Kxe4 5.Kxd7 1-0
3.Rb5+ Kxa6 The introductory phase is over. White has built a
battery aimed at the black king, but now is not the time to fire it.
First the black queen has to be decoyed to somewhere where she is
less active and so the white bishop picks a fight with her majesty.
4.Bf1! Qh1 5.Be2! 5.Rb1+? Ka5 6.Kc7? Qc6+ 0-1 5...Qe1
6.Bd3! 6.Rb2+? Ka5 7.Kc7? Qxc3+ 0-1 6...Qd1 6...Qd2
7.Bf1 Qxf2 8.Rf5+ 1-0 7.Bc4! Qg4 8.Bf1! Qg1 The sprightly
and persistent bishop has gone to f1 the quick way and then
processed slowly back to c4, stopping off at every square on the
way. Finally, by express, he has visited f1 again, and the battery
can now open. 9.Rb1+! Ka5 10.Kc7! After being decoyed to g1,
the black queen can no longer attack the black king on c7, so, to
avoid mate, Black has to play 10...Ka4 (or 10...Qg4 11.Ra1+ Qa4
12.Rxa4+ Kxa4 13.Kxd6 1-0) but then 11.Bb5+ picks up the black queen,
as does 11.Ra1+ Kb3 12.Bc4+ 1–0

Our study for solving, also an entry in an informal tourney, is an
early composition by Julius Buchwald (1909-1970), published in the
city of his birth, Vienna.